Abu Dhabi-Kochi flight runs into drainage pit, none injured

Kochi, Sep 5 (IANS) An Air India Abu Dhabi-Kochi flight on Tuesday morning met with a minor accident at the Cochin International Airport when after landing it ran into a drainage pit. No passenger was hurt, an airline spokesperson confirmed.

“The aircraft had a normal landing and it was marked to go to a particular parking bay. Instead of going into the parking bay, it turned before that, causing the aircraft to run into a drainage pit,” Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) spokesperson A.C.K. Nair told IANS.

“Passengers didn’t even know what had happened and the recovery of the aircraft is currently on. There has been damage to the body parts of the aircraft,” he added.

The flight had 102 passengers on board.

The spokesperson said that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation has already ordered a probe into the matter while the CIAL has started a simultaneous investigation.

The CIAL on its Facebook page shared: “Air India Express IX 452 has been involved in a minor accident at Cochin International Airport at 2.40 a.m. today. The flight from Abu Dhabi had a safe landing and then moved to taxi way.”

“While moving from taxi way to apron, it took a turn 90 metres before what it was supposed to do, resulting in the accident wherein the back wheels got struck in a drain near. All the 102 pax (passenger) were evacuated immediately by using an emergency ladder. All pax are safe.”

The airline said: “Since the incident happened outside runway, no other operations were interrupted. CIAL reported it to DGCA. The safety officials of IX are expected to come for further action. Meanwhile CIAL has offered the service of its DART (Disabled aircraft recovery team).”